


Mokuba learns to Waltz

by LizzieHopscotch



Series: How Seto Kaiba Learned the Joys of Friendship [4]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: F/M, Fluffy, Gen, slowburn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-06-07 18:41:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15225492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizzieHopscotch/pseuds/LizzieHopscotch
Summary: Mokuba asks Téa to teach him to dance





	Mokuba learns to Waltz

Mokuba is a smart kid.

He’s the vice-CEO of a large game company, and yeah, okay he has _help_ with that, but then he’s twelve so. Plus, Seto makes all the really big decisions so it’s not like he could get into too much trouble. He’s acted as a referee in a large tournament, has travelled the length and breadth of the country, and he has a pilot’s license.

Point is, Mokuba is a smart kid.

Which is why this entire situation has him completely out of his depth.

He couldn’t understand how this had slipped by him, he helped organise it for crying out loud! It’s not like Battle City kept him so busy that he couldn’t have gotten on top of this. Okay, maybe from the blimp it would have been difficult, but afterwards, definitely afterwards he should have had a plan.

So then.

How, _how_ , had he managed to overlook the fact that even though he’d organised the Annual Kaiba Corp Gala, he had forgotten that he had agreed to dance and he didn’t _know how_.

Seto would never let him forget it.

…

Seto must not find out.

Besides his brother was far too busy to help him anyway. After Battle City finished Seto threw himself into the company, barely even touching his duel deck. Mokuba would be lying if he said it was nice not to have to compete with cards for his brother’s attention.

He didn’t mind sharing it with Téa though. Téa was the _best,_ she knew all the greatest arcade games and she bought ice cream whenever either brother was feeling down. Plus, she never talked to him like he was just a little kid. He was smart remember!

_Téa._

Téa knew how to dance! She could teach him!

~*~

Mokuba was hovering.

He knew he was hovering but really what was he meant to do with Joey and Yugi refusing to go upstairs. Didn’t Yugi live above the shop? Surely they could talk anywhere else but here?

He stood just inside the door, pretending to be engrossed with the Capsule Monsters display (there were a few he didn’t have that he was totally buying though), hoping the older boys wouldn’t notice him. Especially not Wheeler, who didn’t know how to keep his mouth shut and was honestly the literal _worst_. Yugi was okay though.

Sometimes.

Honestly Mokuba did try with them, even when Wheeler and Tristan were giving him grief over “spying for the enemy” he tried to get along with them. He’d noticed how sad Téa looked sometimes, when the groups separated and there was a moment when she had to decide which way to walk. He tried to make it happen less and less, but he knew that the line between Seto and her friends would always exist. Some people were just destined to never get along.

His teacher, Miss Keller, would have put Wheeler and Seto at the same table every day for a week until they were best friends.

Or, you know, until they engaged in an epic fight to the death that ultimately would only murder the science corner and several art pieces.

Something which Mokuba knew absolutely nothing about.

He promised.

Oh no, Yugi was looking at him.

Mokuba ducked behind another display before Wheeler noticed him too.

“Hey Joey, why don’t we go upstairs? I think the tournament starts soon,”

“Tournament? Awesome! You coming Tea?”

“Uh, I think Grandpa was asking for her help,”

Yugi’s eyes flicked in Mokuba’s direction, and Téa immediately agreed to meet with them later.

They vanished up the stairs and Mokuba finally stepped up to the counter.

“Hey Mokuba, what brings you here?” She leaned around the corner to see the Capsule Monsters. “Does your brother know you buy from the enemy?” she teased lightly.

Mokuba blushed.

No, he didn’t and Mokuba definitely didn’t plan on telling him. It wasn’t his fault Mr. Moto managed to get all the newest monsters half a day sooner than everyone else.

“Mokuba?”

Oh right. He needed to ask her.

Oh god, don’t laugh don’t laugh.

She didn’t, just told him to meet him after school and she’d teach him everything he needed to know.

Seriously.

Téa was _the best_.

~*~

Mokuba was hiding something.

The kid wasn’t subtle at the best of times and lately he was downright obvious in his attempts to be sneaky.

Seto usually wouldn’t be worried about such a thing, however, except that somehow Téa had been dragged into it as well.

Last time Mokuba had attempted to sneak around Seto’s back, the elder brother had returned home to find the entire kitchen restocked with nothing but sugar. It was, apparently, a comment on Seto’s sour demeanour. He let the kid think he had no idea it was going on, as if someone in accounting hadn’t queried the large purchase of sugar near enough immediately.

God knew what would happen if the two of them were working together.

He made a mental note to teach Téa how to play poker, she had absolutely no skill at bluffing.

The other cause for concern: it had been going on for two weeks.

Since waiting for the inevitable phone call detailing mysterious purchases, or the inconvenient disappearance of certain objects, or the strange new screensaver popping up, had yielded nothing, Seto decided that a more proactive approach was required.

He was also bored.

Sending a quick text to Mokuba (Where are you? _Home soon!_ ) he triggered a tracking program in his brother’s phone. Paranoid and invasive maybe, but since someone kept getting kidnapped Seto felt it best to overlook such things.

The computer spat out an address in a small suburb of Domino City. It looked vaguely familiar but it was only as the car approached the right street he realised where he was going.

Quietly he let himself into Téa’s house (she gave him a key for emergencies…this sort of counted?) thankful for the classical music that covered any sound of his approach. Finally, the answers to the mystery were at hand. He reached the doorway to the living room and stopped. The room had changed since he’d last been here three weeks ago, Téa’s parents having insisted on having him and Mokuba around for dinner, the furniture pushed against the wall to create a large space in the centre.

Where Téa and Mokuba were, of all things, waltzing?

Or at least he thought they were, the height difference made it slightly difficult. Téa winced as Mokuba trod on her toes, and from the babbled apologies it wasn’t the first time this had happened. He couldn’t help it, he chuckled.

Mokuba whirled around to face the door, face burning a bright red, while Téa just sighed.

“Well, you’ve rumbled us, good job Kaiba,”

“Rumbled what exactly?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

She looked at the young boy next to her.

“You want to tell him, or should I?”

Mokuba shuffled his feet, mumbling to the ground.

“Sorry, what was that?” said Seto.

“Téa’s helping me learn to dance!” Mokuba blurted too loudly, his fists clenched and obviously expecting some sort of humiliation.

Seto nodded, meeting Téa’s warning gaze.

“The Gala?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s doing really well!” Téa interrupted. “He barely steps on my toes at all now,”

“Hey!”

Seto laughed at the two of them, leaning against the door as Téa began to lead Mokuba back through the steps. It was strange how well the two of them got along, as though they were always meant to be friends. He knew that certainly wasn’t the case for Téa and himself, god he’d fucked up their friendship so badly in the beginning that it still shocked him that she wanted anything to do with him. He was glad she did though, somehow she had wormed his way into their small family of two, and Seto had no idea of the damage scaring her away would cause.

“Or something, anyway,” Mokuba said, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“Sure, you’re going to be ready for the Gala?” Seto asked. “Looking a bit shaky there.”

“I’d like to see you do better!” Mokuba challenged him. “ _You_ dance with Téa,”

“Oh no, he doesn’t have to do that,” Téa waved it off, trying to back away from the brothers. Seto pushed himself off from the wall and held out a hand towards her. Her eyes darted from his hand to his face, before hesitantly resting her hand in his. Cupping her waist gently he began to lead her in a slow waltz, conscious of the small space.

Her hand on his arm was warm through his jacket, and his palm felt too big in her small grip.

“So, he can dance after all,” Téa murmured lowly.

“My step father insisted on it,” he replied just as quietly.

The music rose and fell around them as they moved about the room, attempts at conversation forgotten, as Mokuba watched them from an abandoned piece of furniture.

Something was starting here, he thought, something that could last an eternity or crash and burn in a heartbeat. Whatever it was though, he’d protect it just like his brother had protected him.

Mokuba was a smart kid after all.

**Author's Note:**

> There's another two sort of planned, but who knows when they'll be written.


End file.
